As they continue to spend your marketing dollars — spinning and pitching your story to out-dated newswires and pay-to-play journalism giants, are you missing a prime opportunity to gain exposure through a specialized social media service?

Through hiring a live event correspondent to cover your next event, you could increase your exposure by 5000%.

Reporting live, on location…

These are words that once were spoken exclusively through traditional forms of media, typically by a news reporter covering an event as it was broadcast live on TV. “Reporting live from events” is not limited to the major broadcasting stations any longer. Businesses can now reap the benefits from this type of coverage without going through any gatekeepers.

Traditional forms of media continue to provide newsworthy information that captivate our attention and impact our lives, but new technology has opened the doors to a world of options. Popular social media “channels” like Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Ustream are being tuned in to and businesses can benefit from the professional service of live reporting at trade shows, industry functions, and entertainment events.

New PR Product?

Live reporting from conferences, events, concerts and more is one of the many emerging trends as the PR industry searches for new service offerings that provide value to their clients. When businesses hire a professional event correspondent to report live from their keynote address or panel discussion, the real-time service can have a major impact on exposure and brand awareness that results in a significant return on investment.

What is an Event Correspondent?

A professional who provides live coverage of your presentation or event, capturing and sharing a third party perspective through a variety of online social media channels.

they could report on conference sessions, blogging about each of them or pulling insights from several for a blog post on your site.

And they can even interview celebrities on the red carpet, capture short video interviews of speaker, or livestream parts of events and display them on your site or Facebook page.

Professional event correspondent services increased exposure more than 5000% for Webtrendsduring the event Facebook Sessions presented in Chicago in July, 2011.

10 Benefits an Event Correspondent Provides

There are a variety of benefits a professional experienced event correspondent can offer to grow value for businesses. Here are the top ten benefits an event correspondent can offer:

1. Builds professional credibility.
A third party perspective adds authenticity. Much like a journalist covering an important event or new product, an event correspondent isn’t a paid affiliate. Whether the live updates are posted under your business brand or the event correspondent’s media brands, your taken more seriously when someone validates your value.

2. Positions your brand with industry expertise.
Just being a speaker isn’t enough. Just being a blogger isn’t enough. Don’t get lost in the noise. An experienced correspondent can cut through the noise and deliver your message clearly.

3. Enlarges your audience to a critical mass.
Why limit your voice to the individuals sitting within the four walls? This is the new frontier of market outreach and an event correspondent can push the physical boundaries of the conference venue, geographically speaking.

4. Grows your fan base.
People follow the leader. Be today’s social media leader in your communities. Digitally and socially on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and within your own industry and network, a professional correspondent can point others to your leadership.

5. Preserves the information as online content.
When you speak, words go in one ear and out the other. An event correspondent can archive your moment, online.

6. Generates immediate traffic.
While you are delivering your presentation, the professional correspondent is getting the buzz on for you. You can track the interest in real time, immediately after you present. You can access the audience, their feedback, questions, re-tweets and more.

7. Optimizes ongoing search results.
Live content updates are captured and recapped for future search results allowing your content to be found on a variety of your own channels.

8. Provides more opportunity for speaking engagements.
Get the traction and reputation as a speaker so that you can grow your business through future events in your industry.

9. Optimizes your investment resources.
Are you getting a return on your efforts you put in as a speaker? An experienced event correspondent can help you recognize the opportunities and optimize your resources for your next speaking engagement.

10. Increases ongoing exposure.
Just how long can your wisdom and great sage go on after an event has ended? An event correspondent can give your words wings through tweets and re-tweets and so much more.

Is an Event Correspondent Right For Me?

If you are seeking added-value to your next event and you are with a small or large company, a conference planner, an event sponsor, a publicist, an individual speaker – or anyone seeking to leverage the next event to grow your brand value in your industry, then yes! It is time for you to schedule an event correspondent for your next event.

Another major benefit of using an event correspondants is that you do not actually have to be at the event or pay to fly someone to an industry conference. If you are a fashion brand you can live tweet the Oscars from your couch. If you are in the video game industry, you can have someone local in Las Vegas (or already attending) live blog the Consumer Electronic Show for your business. The options are only limited by your creativity.

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Have you used live event coverage through social media for your business? What tips would you add?

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http://twitter.com/elizabethglau ELIZABETH GLAU

Thanks for the great post, Andrea. This is exactly what I am hired to do, although many professional event organizers have not realized yet the value – so thanks for sharing!

http://twitter.com/andreacook andreacook

Thanks Elizabeth for your feedback. I’d love to learn more about your job – is this your main offering and how long have you been doing this? Perhaps we could do a follow up of some kind and I could ask you a few questions…?

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